How Lighting Affects Mood: A Guide to Using Different Types of Light for Your Benefit

In contrast to warm lighting, cool lighting, characterised by blue and white tones, is associated with increased alertness, focus, and productivity. This type of lighting resembles the bright, clear light of midday, stimulating the brain and enhancing concentration. It's often preferred in workspaces, kitchens, and bathrooms, where tasks requiring focus and attention are performed.

For instance, consider a home office illuminated with cool-toned LED desk lamps. The bright, crisp light can help improve concentration and focus, making it easier to work on tasks requiring mental effort. Similarly, in kitchens, cool lighting can enhance visibility, making food preparation tasks easier and safer.

While cool lighting has its benefits, it's important to use it strategically. Excessive exposure to cool light, particularly in the evening, can disrupt sleep patterns, interfere with melatonin production, and have a detrimental effect on mood. Therefore, it's generally recommended to avoid cool lighting in bedrooms and to use it sparingly in other areas of the home in the hours leading up to bedtime.

Exposure to natural light has been linked to a wide range of benefits, both physical and psychological. One of the most significant advantages is its ability to boost our vitamin D levels. Vitamin D plays a crucial role in calcium absorption, bone health and immune function. A lack of vitamin D has been associated with various health problems, including fatigue, depression and weakened bones.

Beyond vitamin D, natural light is known to improve mood and reduce stress. Studies have shown that exposure to daylight can increase serotonin levels in the brain, promoting feelings of happiness, calmness and focus. Additionally, daylight helps to regulate our circadian rhythm, improving sleep quality and reducing feelings of fatigue and grogginess during the day.

For instance, consider a situation where someone spends most of their day in a dimly lit room with limited access to natural light. They might experience lower serotonin levels and disrupted sleep patterns, potentially leading to feelings of fatigue, low mood and difficulty concentrating.

Fortunately, there are simple and effective ways to maximise natural light in your home. One of the easiest methods is to keep curtains and blinds open during the day, allowing sunlight to stream into your living spaces. If privacy is a concern, opt for sheer curtains or blinds that filter light while maintaining some degree of privacy.

Mirrors can also be strategically placed to reflect natural light deeper into rooms, brightening up darker corners and creating a sense of spaciousness. To illustrate this concept, let's say a living room has a large window on one side but a dark corner on the opposite side, which could negatively affect your mood due to poor lighting. Placing a mirror on the wall opposite the window can reflect sunlight into the dark corner, brightening up the space and creating a more balanced ambience.

Choosing light paint colours for your walls can also help to maximise natural light. Lighter colours reflect more light, making rooms feel brighter and more spacious. Conversely, darker colours absorb more light, making rooms feel smaller and dimmer.

One of the most important aspects of artificial lighting is colour temperature, measured in Kelvin (K). Warmer colour temperatures, typically ranging from 2700K to 3000K, emit a soft, yellowish light similar to that of traditional incandescent bulbs. These warm tones create a relaxing and inviting atmosphere, making them well-suited for bedrooms, living rooms and dining areas.

Cooler colour temperatures, ranging from 3500K to 4100K, emit a brighter, whiter light often associated with fluorescent bulbs. This cool light is more stimulating and can enhance focus and alertness, making it ideal for kitchens, home offices and bathrooms.

For instance, consider a homeowner choosing bulbs for their bedroom. Opting for warm white bulbs with a colour temperature around 2700K would create a relaxing ambiance conducive to sleep. In contrast, for a home office, cool white bulbs with a colour temperature around 4000K would provide a more stimulating environment for work.

Using a single type of lighting in a room can create a flat and uninspiring atmosphere. Instead, interior designers often recommend a layered lighting approach, incorporating a combination of ambient, task and accent lighting. Ambient lighting provides overall illumination for a space, while task lighting provides focused light for specific activities, such as reading or cooking. Accent lighting is used to highlight architectural features or decorative elements, demonstrating how lighting design can create visual interest and depth.

To illustrate this concept, imagine a living room with recessed lighting for ambient illumination, table lamps for task lighting in reading corners and a spotlight highlighting a piece of artwork. This layered approach creates a dynamic and balanced ambiance, allowing for flexibility and adaptability depending on the desired mood and activity.

While blue light is beneficial for alertness and focus during the day, excessive exposure to blue light at night can disrupt our sleep patterns and interfere with melatonin production. Blue light is emitted by various electronic devices, such as smartphones, tablets and computers, as well as certain types of LED and fluorescent bulbs. To minimise blue light exposure in the evening, consider using warm-toned bulbs in lamps and overhead fixtures.

For example, replacing cool white LED bulbs in bedroom lamps with warm white bulbs can help create a more relaxing environment for sleep, enhancing the overall effect of light on mood. Additionally, using "night mode" settings on electronic devices, which reduce blue light emissions, can help minimise the impact of screen time on sleep.